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Enginaire

Enginaire adds to its Cabaire™ product line to help its customers meet the new OSHA regulations for respirable crystalline silica.

By Janice Hoppe-Spiers

As the leader in air pre-cleaners for more than 45 years, Enginaire expanded its product line more than a decade ago to include cab pressurization systems so operators could breathe easier. The company continues to evolve its Cabaire™ product line as OSHA revises its regulation on small crystalline silica.

About 2.2 million workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in their workplaces and a more than half of these workers are in the construction industry, according to OSHA. “In September, OSHA passed its first revised regulation on its respirable crystalline silica standards since 1971,” says Mark Losching, director of sales and marketing. “There is a long list of new measures that companies need to take to protect their employees from silica. The new regulation has cut the previous permissible limit in half.”

To ensure workers are not exposed to more than 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter of air, the regulation requires implementing engineering controls or continually monitoring and assessing silica levels. Enginaire’s Cabaire™ product line is designed to provide coverage.

“Instead of constantly monitoring and assessing the levels, putting engineering controls in place is a much better solution,” Losching says. “Because of this, we have picked up steam in our cab pressurization market and are hoping to provide our system to OEMs, dealers and distributors who deal in these dirty environments. The companies that make oil and gas or frac equipment get an extra year as the regulations do not go into effect until 2018. The law went into effect in 2017 for general industries and construction.”

How it Works

Cabaire™ uses its own high-pressure air pump to deliver a high volume of dual filtered air into an enclosure, such as an operator’s compartment, which then has a positive air pressure on the inside. When the enclosure has a positive pressure, dirt is forced out of the doors, windows and other unsealed areas instead of being drawn into the enclosure.

Enginaire’s proven and patented air pre-cleaner along with its inline filter are incorporated in Cabaire™, which is available in 12/24 volt DC for mobile equipment and 115 volt AC for stationary equipment or enclosures. The company’s pre-cleaners are designed to remove up to 97 percent of airborne debris from the incoming air before it enters the air induction system of the engine.

“We have sold engine filtration products since the early ’70s,” Losching says. “The centrifugal pre-cleaner ejects the dust and debris. We have different filters on Cabaire™ for different environments. For example, the standard Merv 16 filter is 95 percent efficient at .3 microns of dust and we offer a HEPA filter that is 99.97 percent efficient as well as activated charcoal filters. Activated charcoal is used more for chemical, pesticide, gas or odor-laden environments.”

Enginaire targets oil and gas, mining, construction, forestry, agriculture and ag spraying industries. “We have had the most success in agriculture because it is known to be an environment where there is pretty fine dust,” Losching explains. “Our pre-cleaners have done well with farmers and because it is an environment where chemicals and pesticides are used, both our HEPA and activated charcoal filters employed with Cabaire™ keep the operators safe and protected from those potentially harmful contaminants. We have done well with the orchard and nut harvesting markets in California.”

Setting the Standard

Enginaire’s Cabaire™ innovative product line sets it apart among its competitors in an ever-changing market. The baseline motor is a brushed model. The automatic pressure control (APC) 10,000-hour brushless motor is also available and is pressure-sensitive, ensuring the enclosure maintains the same amount of pressure even if a door or window is opened and there is a loss of pressure.

The base model requires a constant flow of air pushing across the filters while the APC brushless motor only uses as much as it needs, therefore extending the life of the filter. The third technology tier called intelligent cab pressurization (ICP) has variable speed control like the APC as well as an LED monitor that constantly displays the pressure inside the cab.

A light will flash when there are breaches in the enclosure and a USB port allows for easy tracking and recording of pressure outputs. The data can then be analyzed to monitor the equipment and ensure operators are keeping the cab under positive pressure.

Enginaire is a fabrication shop equipped with all the tools for 3-D modeling. It is attractive to larger companies that want quick turnaround. “Being a mid-sized business with a really close-knit group, our sales and application engineers can get things to the design team quickly and can draw up custom builds on air cleaners faster than larger companies,” Losching explains. “We can build any type of canister-style air cleaner.”

Plastic canister air cleaners take longer to manufacture than metal ones because they have to be molded. Two years ago, Enginaire launched a plastic twist lock series air cleaner so the locking mechanism is internally structured. The twist lock series also comes with the option of UL approved flame retardant filters and the plastic molded filter canisters are flame retardant as well. “Now there is one lever that can be placed left, right, top or bottom and put in tighter spaces and right up against the machine,” Losching explains. “In previous air cleaner designs, you had to have space on both sides and undo a clamp. The twist lock series has a single lever and stronger locking mechanism.”

The company has also been working on improving the filters inside the Cabaire™ system. “We have been looking into new technologies around activated charcoal,” Losching says. “There are a lot of different environments that Cabaire™ can be deployed in. The feedback we are getting from our customers is that the charcoal filtration is chemically adsorbing whatever volatile compound the customers are concerned about. This is something that has led us to really research and work on continuously improving the type of charcoal to provide the most surface area while still allowing sufficient air to pass through the system.”

Moving forward, Enginaire plans to continue evolving its Cabaire™ product line as interest increases from a variety of industries. “We will be looking at using multiple stages of filtration,” Losching says. “We will really be pushing the product to have it be used in industries that really need us to keep their equipment clean and safe and keep their operators healthy.”